An Evening with Ambassador Dominic Barton

When: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 | 6:00 p.m. Where: University Club, 380 University Avenue, TorontoCost: $275 per guests or a table of ten for $2,750

The International Commission of Jurists, Canadian Section, in collaboration with the Professional Development Institute of the University of Ottawa invites you to an evening with Dominic Barton, Canada's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China.

The dinner event will feature a talk by Ambassador Barton on Canada's Relationship with China: Promoting our Interests and Protecting our Values.

Speaker Biography

Mr. Dominic Barton was appointed as Canada’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of the China by the Right Honourable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on September 4, 2019.

Prior to his nomination, Ambassador Barton was a Global Managing Partner at McKinsey & Company where he served from 2009 to 2018. Ambassador Barton also served as Chairman of Teck Resources and as Non-Executive Director at the Singtel Group in Singapore and Investor AB in Sweden. He was also a board member of the Olayan Group, a private family-owned company.

In 2016, Ambassador Barton assumed the responsibility of Chair for the Canadian Minister of Finance’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth. He was also the Chair of the Seoul International Business Advisory Council for six years prior to his nomination. Ambassador Barton also served as a Senior Trustee of the Brookings Institution, as a member of the Singapore Economic Development Board’s International Advisory Council, and as a member of the boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Mr. Barton is also one of the founders of Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLTGlobal).

In 2018, Ambassador Barton was named Chancellor of the University of Waterloo. He has also served as Co-Chair on the Max Bell School of Public Policy Advisory Board at McGill University and on the University of Toronto Psychiatry Campaign Cabinet where he engaged in volunteer support, community outreach and leadership development. In addition to these roles, Ambassador Barton served on the board of the Malala Fund, has been actively involved in the HeForShe initiative, and worked with the Mastercard Foundation to create employment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ambassador Barton has co-authored four books, including on topics related to financial management and leadership. He is an Adjunct Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the recipient of eight honorary doctorates, including from the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia and the University of Edinburgh.

Ambassador Barton graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Economics and has a Master of Philosophy in Economics from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Ambassador Barton was born in Kampala, Uganda, in September 1962. He is married and has three children.

To purchase a table of ten, please contact Marie Dickinson at 613-562-5272 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The International Commission of Justists Canada, the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) and the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa cordially invite you to an event featuring the Ukrainian filmmaker and human rights activist Oleh Sentsov.

Oleh Sentsov, an internationally known documentary film director, was an active Maidan supporter, in Kyïv and his native Simferopol, Crimea. After the annexation in 2014, he was arrested on fabricated charges of “terrorism.” In contravention of international law, he was imposed Russian citizenship and sent to Russia, where he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. His arrest, trial, and punishment in Siberian prisons drew international condemnation. Mr Sentsov was released in 2019 as part of a exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine.

The event, “A Conversation with Oleg Sentsov” will be moderated by John Packer, HRREC Director, and will feature Dominique Arel, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, and the Hon. Andriy Shevchenko, Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada. Mr Sentsov will be speaking in Russian, with consecutive translation into English. The question period will be conducted in English and French.

The event is co-sponsored by the Canadian Section of the International Commission of Jurists and is made possible thanks to the support of the Embassy of Ukraine to Canada and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

It will be held on Wednesday, February 5, between 2.30-4.30 PM, in the HRREC Seminar Room, in Room 570 (5th Floor) of Fauteux Hall, 57 Louis Pasteur, on University of Ottawa Campus. The campus map can be accessed at http://www.uottawa.ca/maps/. Fauteux Hall is identified on the map as “FTX” and is located between University Private and Thomas More Private.

Since seating is limited, people interested in attending are strongly encouraged to freely pre-register by sending an email to the Chair of Ukrainian Studies (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). The Human Rights Research and Education Centre can also be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The International Commission of Jurists- Canada (ICJ-C) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 Walter Tarnopolsky Human Rights Award, the highest form of recognition for contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights and civil liberties that can be granted by the ICJ-C.

The Walter Tarnopolsky Award recognizes individuals in the legal community, as well as institutions and organizations, for their outstanding national contribution in the field of human rights and civil liberties. Outstanding achievement is measured by the recipients’ level of excellence and initiative, their sustained body of work, peer recognition and the recipients’ broad impact inside and outside the Canadian legal community.

The ICJ-C is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2020 Award is the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Renu Mandhane. You can read Ms. Mandhane’s biography here.

The recipient of the 2020 Walter Tarnopolsky Prize will receive her Award in the form of a specially designed medal at a major event in the first part of 2020. Details of which will follow. We encourage those that have been nominated in the past to seek to be re-nominated for 2021 and beyond. Further details on the Award and method of nomination and past recipients can be found at the ICJ-C website here.

For more information about ICJ-C and the Walter Tarnopolsky Prize, please contact the Executive Director of ICJ Canada, Stéphanie Plante This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In countries across the world, the rule of law is under threat. What is Canada’s experience? Have courts and administrative bodies been impacted? Join us for an event hosted by the International Commission of Jurists Canada and the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

As stated by former Chief Justice Beverly McLachlan: “...without administrative tribunals, the rule of law in the modern regulatory state would falter and fail.”

Join human rights advocates, jurists and legal experts as we explore the risks facing Canadian judicial and quasi-judicial bodies and preserving independence and the rule of law.

This afternoon event at Hotel Bonaventure, in Montreal, is on the last day of the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals' (CCAT) 35th Annual Symposium: Common Challenges, Diverse Solutions: Administrative Justice in a World of Change. This event will take place on May 28, 2019 from 1:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.Click here to proceed to the event page for registration.

Please join us on June 10th, 2019 for our conference titled "Facing Changes in the Military While Respecting the Rule of Law: Emerging Responses and Legal Issues", co-hosted with the University of Ottawa Professional Development Institute. This conference will be a unique one-day program designed to offer high quality presentations and discussions by leading experts on the following topics:

Military recruiting and retention in the 21st Century;

Legal/ethical challenges and advantages of key technologies applied to military operations;

Social media, cybercrime and the military: security issues, extremism, freedom of expression/association, investigations and actions; and

Operational legal issues associated with how military forces face contemporary and emerging threats to national security

This conference is eligible for 7 substantive CPD hours, and is eligible to go towards the requirements of the S.E.T. certificate of professional development of the Institute of Professional Development. For more information, or to register for this conference, please follow this link to the event page.

2018 was an eventful year, and we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the work we have done protecting human rights, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary. We would also like to look to 2019 and give our members a hint of what we have planned ahead.

2018 in ReviewICJ Canada was active in responding to pressing issues being faced both within Canada and internationally.

In April, ICJ Canada and CIPS hosted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for a town hall discussion on the importance of NATO during a time in which the rules-based international order is being challenged:

In May, we hosted a High Level Discussion on the Role of the Canadian Ombuds Person for Responsible Enterprise that attracted participants from the private sector, civil society, and regulators:

In October, we supported Senator Kim Pate in her call against mandatory minimum penalties through Bill S-251, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (independence of the judiciary) and the make related amendments) :

ICJ Canada also continues to take a principled stance in calling for action against the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people in Myanmar alongside our civil society partners from across the world. Board Member John Packer in particular was quite busy on this file, and was featured in an article from the Globe and Mail on the topic. In August, we hosted a symposium on the Rohingya Crisis:

ICJ Canada President Professor Errol Mendes has working on the topic of press freedom and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashaggi. Professor Mendes participated in a news conference with former justice minister Irwin Cotler and several Parliamentarians on November 8th, 2018. Professor Mendes also contributed an Op-ed to the Globe and Mail that you can read here.

Members of ICJ Canada also had distinguished years individually. Professor Mendes received a Senate 150th Anniversary Medal in recognition of his work on the rule of law, human rights, and anti-discrimination. ICJ Canada Board Member Pierre Dalphond was appointed as an Independent Senator with the intention of assisting with the Senate's modernization and helping it fulfill its responsibility as a chamber of sober second thought, examination and inquiry.

Lastly, ICJ Canada would like to again congratulate Professor Penelope Simons on being selected as the 2018 Tarnoposky Award winner. Professor Simons received the award on October 31st at the reception following the event "70 Years On... is Humanity Ready for a World Court of Human Rights?", hosted by the Human Rights Research and Education Center and chaired by Professor Packer.

Looking to 2019ICJ Canada has several events lined up for early 2019. First, we will be co-hosting a talk with Bill Browder, who will be speaking on how he became President Putin's nemesis with his tireless world-wide campaigning on "The Magnitsky Act". You can see the full details of the event and buy tickets for Bill Browder: From Russia's largest foreign investor to President Putin's Public Enemy No. 1here now.

Looking further ahead, Chantal Bernier will be be holding an event on the regulation of the Internet, hate speech, and privacy in April. Monette Maillet will be holding an event on commissions, tribunals, and the rule of law in May. Julianne Dunbar and David Antonyshyn will be holding an event on military justice, technology, and the rule of law on June 10th, 2019. For more information on any of these events, please contact Stephanie Plante at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

ICJ Canada relies on the support and expertise of its members to continue its mission of protecting human rights, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary. If you have any thoughts on, or would like to contribute to, any of the events identified above, please let us know.

Additionally, if you have not already, please consider renewing your ICJ Canada membership for 2019 using the button below. We are looking to expand our membership next year, so if you have any friends or colleagues that would be interesting in supporting assisting us in achieving our mandate please consider suggesting they join us as well.

On October 31st, 2018, ICJ Canada recognized Professor Penelope Simons as the 2018 recipient of the Walter S. Tarnopolsky award, which is given annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to human rights in Canada or abroad. The award ceremony took place in at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law's atria at the reception following the event "70 Years On... is Humanity Ready for a World Court of Human Rights?", hosted by the Human Rights Research and Education Center and chaired by ICJ Canada board member John Packer.

Prior to taking up her position at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa, Penelope was a Senior Lecturer in Law at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK. She was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1996 and practiced corporate/commercial law with McCarthy Tétrault LLP. She has also worked in the nongovernmental sector on peace and disarmament issues.

Penelope has been engaged in research on corporate human rights accountability for over a decade. In December 1999 she participated in the Canadian Assessment Mission to Sudan (the Harker Mission), appointed by Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, to investigate allegations of slavery as well as links between oil development in Sudan and violations of human rights. Her current research is focused on the human rights implications of domestic and extraterritorial corporate activity, state responsibility for corporate complicity in human rights violations, as well as the intersections between transnational corporate activity, human rights and international economic law.Penelope teaches international human rights law, business organizations, public international law and a course on transnational corporations, human rights and international trade and investment law. Her most recent work involved research with UN High Commissioner for Human Right’s Accountability and Remedy Project.

In this month which marks the 70 anniversary of the Genocide Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Canada should demonstrate its profound commitment to both Conventions by actions that prevent the promise of “never again” becoming the reality of “yet again” as we are seeing too often, since the Second World War demonstrated most recently by the continuing unfolding of the genocide in Myanmar against the Rohingya people.

The International Commission of Jurists, Canada asks the Canadian government to demonstrate leadership by demanding effective international efforts to protect the Rohingya that remain in Myanmar while also ensuring that any attempts to repatriate them back to Myanmar is not sending them back into a continuing form of genocidal repression. This is the minimum that our commitment to the Genocide Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our own commitment to the global rule of law demands of us.

On August 25th, ICJ Canada board member John Packer and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre co-hosted a Symposium on the Legal Dimensions of the Rohingya Crisis with the help of guests such as David Palumba-Liu from Stanford University and Ashley S. Kinseth from the Stateless Dignity Program. The symposiums programme is attached to this post. The symposium is well time with the release of the United Nation Human Rights Council's Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar today on 27 August 2018. The UNHRC's report describes that the Rohingya crisis as a foreseeable, planned, and enduring human rights catastrophe, and makes several strong findings and recommendations.

ICJ Canada president Errol Mendes is urging Canada and all nations that are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention to support the UN report that Myanmar’s top military generals, including Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, must be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in the north of Rakhine State, as well as for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States. See the UN Press Release: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23475&LangID=E

Today, Canada celebrates the 36th anniversary of the signing of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter was signed by then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on April 17, 1982. In 2015, 93 per cent of Canadians surveyed chose the Charter as the most important symbol of national identity, ranking it higher than the flag, the RCMP, the national anthem, hockey, the beaver, and the maple leaf.

ICJ Canada President Errol Mendes encourages all Canadians to reflect on the meaning of the Charter’s introduction and how it has shaped Canada since it came into force. The Charter guarantees basic rights and freedoms for everyone in Canada and continues to be essential in the protection of human rights, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary.

More...

ICJ Canada Board Member and University of Ottawa Law Professor John Packer supports Bob Rae’s call for Canada to play a leadership role in addressing the Rohingya crisis. “Not only is this amongst the world’s worst humanitarian crises, but it is another threat to the international rules-based order presenting evident challenges for regional peace and security and sustainable peace and development in Myanmar and its neighbourhood. Canada is well-placed to step up with substantial humanitarian assistance, but also to press for accountability of those individually responsible for the crimes committed. In this regard, the ICC Prosecutor’s request for clarification of jurisdiction is a welcome development. But beyond humanitarian assistance and the fight against impunity, Canada should also lead in addressing the larger challenges of Myanmar’s State responsibility for the situation as a whole and in urging and assisting an appropriate inter-governmental approach, consistent with the UN Charter, to the root causes. Issues of human rights, democratic governance, and the Rule of Law – within Myanmar and at international level – are at the heart of these challenges.”

ICJ Canada president and University of Ottawa Law Professor Errol Mendes congratulates the University of Victoria on Canada's first Indigenous Law Degree. Indigenous and Aboriginal Legal Traditions are gaining traction around the world and we are thrilled to see this development coming from one of Canada's leaders in post-secondary education while promoting Indigenous law and faculty. This aligns with our mandate of promoting human rights and the rule of law throughout Canada and world and aligns with the Truth and Reconciliation's recommendations to increase Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms at all levels.

On April 4th, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke at a CÉPI - CIPS Town Hall discussion on the importance of NATO during a time in which the rules-based international order is being challenged. ICJ Canada President Errol Mendes joined Mr. Stoltenberg on stage as host and discussion moderator.

Jens Stoltenberg is Norwegian and held various posts in the government including Prime Minister of Norway from 2005-2013

During his tenure as Prime Minister, Mr Stoltenberg frequently called for NATO to focus on security challenges close to Allied territory.

Mr Stoltenberg is a strong supporter of enhanced transatlantic cooperation, including better burden-sharing across the Atlantic. He sees NATO and the EU as complementary organisations in terms of securing peace and development in Europe and beyond.

Mr Stoltenberg has had a number of international assignments. These include chairing the UN High-level Panel on System-wide Coherence and the High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing. He was also UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.

May 2018 bring you a peace filled life, warmth and togetherness with your work, friends, family and much prosperity. ICJ Canada’s first order of business will be to get our podcast series off the ground and we want to hear from you! What topics would like covered? What are the pressing legal issues facing Canada today? Are there any legal actors (judges, professors, lawyers, plaintiffs) we should profile or interview?

Send us a quick e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and let us know by next Friday, January 19, 2018. We would love to hear from you!

We would also encourage anyone who has not already purchased a membership for 2018 to please consider doing so. Your support is essential in allowing ICJ Canada to do projects such as these podcasts and advocate for the rule of law, judicial independence, and human rights in Canada.